To Fit is to Accept
by HeroesWearRed
Summary: Arthur is cursed by a warlock to feel what it's like to not fit in. He remembers Camelot, but no one else does, and he doesn't understand modern society. Can he break the curse? Can he convince Merlin and the others he's not crazy? AU kinda. Rated M for later chapters. Please read. This is thoroughly researched and thought through.
1. Chapter 1

Arthur awoke to a loud bleeping. Jumping to his feet to grab his sword he began to notice that his surroundings were not his chambers. He searched for his sword only for it to be hung upon the wall, framed in intricately carved wood and covered in the clearest glass he'd ever seen, not that the prince cared about the quality of the glass. He punched through the glass, grabbing the hilt of the sword and heading to the doorway. Ignoring the pain in his bleeding knuckles, Arthur observed there was light coming in from under the door. He carefully turned the doorknob and opened the door slowly, sword at the ready.

The crowned prince peeked through the crack in the door to see if there was anyone in the hallway, and upon it being empty he ran out into the hallway. He made his way down the hall, stopping at a turn in the hall and checking around the corner before continuing. Nothing looked familiar. Everything seemed blindingly bright and the walls were covered in some sort of paper. It wasn't like any castle he had ever been in or seen anywhere in Albion. Arthur stopped suddenly when he heard footsteps. They were soft, muddled by the carpet on the floor.

Arthur was poised to swing as soon as the person turned the corner. As soon as the person began to turn the corner, Arthur recognized the face of his manservant. He dropped his sword to his side in relief, seeing Merlin freely walking around meant that the situation was probably not very dangerous.

"What are you carrying that around for?" Merlin asked, looking at the sword with an expression of confusion and fear.

"What do you mean what am I carrying it around for?" Arthur responded indignantly, though Merlin's confusion did not seem to fade. "Whatever have you got that look for?"

Merlin seemed to be at a loss for words for a long moment. "Your hand's bleeding." He pointed out, as if Arthur hadn't already noticed the rather obvious fact.

"I've noticed that, _Merlin_. Someone put my sword into a bloody glass case."

"You broke the case? You're obviously still concussed. You need to get some rest." Merlin instructed, gingerly trying to take the sword from Arthur.

"What are you saying? I don't need rest. I need to find out what's going on! Where are we?" Arthur asked, yanking the sword out of Merlin's reach.

Merlin's eyebrows furrowed in further confusion, "You don't know where you are?" He asked.

"Are you to say you do?"

"Of course I do. We're in your house, you clotpole." Merlin said. "And since you don't remember that means you should go back to your room and rest while I call Gaius."

"This isn't my house! And go ahead and call Gaius, he'll tell you that you're mad." Arthur stated, wincing slightly as the adrenaline wore off and he noticed not only the stinging in his hand, but also a throbbing in his head.

"Whatever you say, Arthur, let's just get you back to bed." Merlin said, starting to lead Arthur back towards the room from which he came.

Arthur begrudgingly followed, figuring that soon either Gaius would sort this whole mess out or Arthur would find his own way out of whatever situation he'd gotten himself into this time.

Merlin took the sword from Arthur as he sat down on the bed. Looking around he said, "Really made a mess of the place, haven't you?" Arthur looked around the room. There were glass shards on the ground along with a few drops of blood, clothes were scattered around the unfamiliar room and the curtains were drawn blocking out the light. All over all it looked no messier than his usual room.

Arthur shrugged, "Go ahead and fetch Gaius would you?"

Merlin handed Arthur a couple of clean clothes. "For you hand, you have no idea how hard it is to get a stain out of your expensive bedsheets." He chucked as Arthur wrapped the washcloths around his hand.

Merlin reached into his pocket and pulled out a rectangle. It seemed to be made of metal and glass and produce its own light. "What on earth is that?" Arthur asked.

"You asked me to call Gaius, so I'm calling him." Merlin answered, not answering Arthur's question, but instead putting the rectangle up to his ear. Arthur could have sworn he heard a faint ringing for a few moments before Merlin started talking again. "Gaius. Yes. He woke up. No. He seems confused. Yeah. I found him wandering in the hallway. Okay. See you soon."

Arthur's face was contorted into extreme confusion. "How… What…?"

"Just try and get some rest. Gaius said he'll been over soon." Merlin insisted.

"What do you mean? How does Gaius know to come?" Arthur's questions seemed to multiply the in his head the more he verbalized.

"How many questions are you going to ask before you just get some rest?" Merlin rebutted.

Arthur huffed and fell back onto the strangely soft bed. He wanted answers, but it seemed like Merlin seemed not to want to give them to him. "You may go." He said, dismissing his manservant.

"Okay." Merlin said, exiting the room without another room.

That was odd, thought Arthur. Merlin almost always said sire or your majesty or some form of a formal address. Come to think of it, Merlin hadn't used any sort of title since Arthur had woken up. Arthur stared the ceiling, trying to make sense of any subtle clues that Merlin might had dropped. So this was his chambers… or Merlin had said his room. He sighed loudly, shutting his eyes against his throbbing head. Why was his bloody head hurting so badly? And what was that persistent humming sound? He considered calling Merlin and asking him, but he doubted that Merlin would truly answer his questions.

Just a few minutes had passed before he heard a light knock on the door followed by the entering of Gaius and Merlin. Arthur began to sit up as a bright light suddenly flipped on from above.

"What is that light?" Arthur asked, blocking his eyes from the brightness.

"It's the light. You know the thing above your head." Merlin answered, gesturing towards the source of the light, a chandelier lacking candles, but instead having odd balls of glass.

"But there are no candles or torches, how is it making light?" Arthur asked another question, hoping for a good explanation.

Gaius, seeming to ignore Arthur's question, spoke. "Do you know who you are?"

Arthur furrowed his eyebrows. "Of course I do, what kind of question is that?"

"Your name, please." Gaius insisted.

"Arthur Pendragon. Seriously, Gaius, why are you asking me my name?" Arthur asked, noticing Gaius writing something down. Gaius never took notes during exams, nor did he ever carry around a sizable folder.

"Do you know where you are?" Gaius said, moving on to the next question.

"Merlin said I'm in my room, but to be honest I have no clue." Arthur said, rubbing his hand over his eyes in exasperation. Why were none of his questions answered when _he_ was the crowned prince.

Gaius wrote something else down and asked another question, "Do you know the date?"

"It's early spring." Arthur said. He rarely paid attention to the exact day, that was what servants were for.

"And the year?"

"498." Arthur answered.

Gaius looked rather concerned as he wrote something else down. "What do you remember, before the hospital?"

"The hospital? What's a hospital?" Arthur asked. "Can someone just please explain to me what's going on?" Arthur could feel himself getting more and more frustrated by the moment.

"You seem to be presenting with an abnormal form of amnesia. You suffered from a concussion two days ago and were transferred home yesterday afternoon, March 5th, 2015." Gaius started to explain. "The best thing is to rest, hopefully most of your memories will restore themselves with ti-"

"2015! That's not possible. And where am I?" Arthur interrupted a knot of fear in his stomach. Gaius said he had only been asleep a couple of days, not 1500 years.

"You're in your home on the outskirts of London." Gaius answered. "I really must insist you get some rest. I can run some additional tests tomorrow, but for now it's best you try your best to stay relaxed."

Merlin chuckled. "Arthur relaxed, yeah right."

Under normal circumstances Arthur would have thrown something at Merlin's head, but this was not normal circumstances. He nodded solemnly, deciding there was not much else he could get out of the physician. "You're dismissed, Gaius."

Gaius nodded. "I will talk to you father when he gets home and I'm sure he'll want to talk to you as well." Gaius said before exiting the room.

Arthur had barely noticed Merlin cleaning up the broken glass on the ground as he lied back down on the bed; trying to make sense of the information he was just given.

A/N: First Merlin fanfic. I am doing my best to do research and keep everyone as in-time in-character as possible. Please leave a review~~


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: OMG I am super excited that the first chapter of this fanfic was so well received. Thank you to everyone who read it an especially to those of you who followed it, favourited it, or reviewed. Anyways, let's get on with the tale~

Arthur watched as Merlin walked in and out of his room and another for a few minutes, cleaning up the floor. Arthur shifted to a sitting position after a few minutes of Merlin's clattering around. "Either do that quitter or actually have a conversation." He demanded.

Merlin didn't look up from where he was scrubbing at the bloodstained rug. Arthur gave the boy a strange look; he had something in his ears.

"Merlin!" He said slightly louder, still no response from the boy. "Merlin!" Arthur yelled, throwing the closest thing, which happened to be a pillow, at his servant.

Merlin jumped, pulling the things out of his ears. "Bloody hell, Arthur! What was that for?"

"I'll just ignore that first bit." Arthur said, he didn't quite understand the meaning, but with tone alone he could tell they were not words of kindness. "How about the fact it's the year 2015. I swear, Merlin, if this is some sort of joke that you're pulling I'll have your head."

"Yeah, it's totally a prank." Merlin said sarcastically. "What year did you say you thought it was anyways, four hundred and something?"

Arthur was surprised at the way Merlin spoke to him. The lack of formal titles was one thing, but sarcasm and blatant rudeness, well in a situation like this anyways, was not normal of his manservant. "498." Arthur corrected. "And it _is_ the year 498."

Merlin shook his head. "You must have hit your head really hard when you fell off the bar Saturday."

"I don't recall doing anything of the sort." Arthur argued. He had been on a hunting trip on Saturday, he was sure of it.

"I'm not surprised." Merlin said with a small chuckled. "You were pretty drunk."

"I most certainly was not!" Arthur countered.

Merlin held up his hands in mock surrender. "Whatever you say."

"And where is my father?" Arthur asked. His father rarely left the citadel and the king had always appeared mere moments after Arthur's awakenings in the past.

"Work probably." Merlin said with a shrug. "Where else would he be at 4:50 in the afternoon?"

"Where is that?" Arthur asked yet another question.

"At headquarters in London. You really don't remember any of this, do you?" Merlin asked, taking a seat on the edge of the prince's bed, finally seeming to take the situation seriously.

"I don't know any of this. Last thing I remember we were on a hunting trip with Gwaine and Lancelot and now we're here." Arthur tried to explain his plight to his servant.

Merlin made a face of disbelief. "A hunting trip?"

Arthur nodded. "It was late and I was on watch." He tried to remember all of the details. "I heard a sound and I went to investigate and then I woke up here to some weird beeping." As if on cue the same beeping went off again. "That! What is that sound?"

"It's you're phone." Merlin said, grabbing a rectangular thing about the size of his hand off the nightstand. "Looks like your Father is calling."

"I don't hear my father calling for me." Arthur said, listening for his father's voice.

Merlin laughed and touched the rectangle a couple of time before a voice came from it. "Arthur, how are you?" It was Uther's voice, but Uther was nowhere to be seen.

"Father?" Arthur asked, slightly fearful. He suspected magic was behind this, what else could it be?

"Yes, Arthur? Gaius called me and said you'd woken up. How are you feeling?" Uther asked through the rectangle in Merlin's hand.

Arthur was momentarily too confused to speak. It was at least ten seconds before he responded. "Umm… Yes. I'm awake."

"That's good to hear. You had me worried." Uther responded with a small laugh. "I'm on my way home now; I should be there in about 20 minutes. I just wanted to call and confirm that everything was okay."

"Alright…" Arthur was too dumbstruck to say much else. Somehow through the rectangle he and his father were speaking, yet his father seemed completely calm about this fact. Arthur's mind was racing trying to figure out how his father could be perfectly calm about using magic to communicate with his son.

A moment later he heard his father bidding him goodbye and Merlin setting the rectangle back on the side table. "That… That was magic." Arthur said in a mixture of awe, anger, and fear.

"Actually it was technology." Merlin corrected him, standing up from the edge of the bed. "Anyways, I should finish cleaning up or your father'll have my head when he gets here."

Arthur blinked and nodded, watching as Merlin went back to cleaning up. Soon, Merlin had left and Arthur was alone in the unfamiliar room. He set his eyes back upon the rectangle that was on the side table, what had Merlin called it, a phone? He gingerly reached over and picked it up, careful as if dealing with something hot. It didn't seem to be anything too extraordinary now, just a chunk of metal and glass. The blonde turned it over in his hands, examining it from all angles. It had something that looked like an apple on the back. He set it back on the side table, eyeing it cautiously for the strange beeping it had emitted twice now.

He studied many of the other items in the room, there was another rectangle, this one much larger and against the wall. There was a dresser; at least Arthur could recognize that item. Upon opening that he saw clothes, but not the same fabrics as he was used to. He picked up an article, it seemed to be trousers, they were dark blue, slightly rougher than the linen he was used to, but they seemed more durable as well. There were buttons and pockets, and a strange thin piece of leather like material that said Levi on it. He put the trousers back into the drawer and shut it as he heard a knock at the door and someone enter.

Arthur turned around quickly to see his father, Gaius, and Merlin. "Father." He greeted politely.

"I'm so glad to see you awake." Uther said with a small smile.

"I thought I told you to rest." Gaius said with that disappointed tone he spoke to all his patients with. Arthur knew it well. Whenever he was to break a rib or something of the sort and refuse to rest longer than a few hours he would get that disappointed tone.

Arthur indignantly sat down on the edge of the bed. "So can someone explain to me what curse has put my 1500 years in the future?"

"A curse? What do you mean, Arthur?" Uther asked, concern creasing his forehead.

"I mean this is not Camelot. Some kind of magic must have been used." Arthur insisted. If anyone would believe his plea he could only hope it was his father.

Uther and Gaius exchanged a look before Uther spoke. "Gaius told me you were suffering from some amnesia and some delusions, but I must assure you that everything is perfectly fine."

Arthur huffed and put his head in his hands. "Of course it is."

"Just follow Gaius's advice and rest, Arthur." Uther told him. "And if you have any questions I'm sure you're personal assistant can help to answer those and I'm always just a phone call away."

Arthur nodded. "Yes, father."

Uther turned and left, saying he had to take some calls since he had left work early. Gaius stayed and spoke. "If you need anything more, please just ask."

"I will, Gaius. Thank you." Arthur sighed, feeling defeated.

"It's not a problem." Gaius said before exiting the room quietly, leaving just the two young men together.

"So I assume you think I'm just crazy too." Arthur said, looking at Merlin, who was standing near the door.

"No. I know you're crazy, but that's nothing new." Merlin said, with his normal goofy grin plastered on his face.

"You're an idiot." Arthur told his servant, or personal assistant, even though he was thankful for the slight sense of normalcy and comfort that being around Merlin gave him.

A/N: It'll pick up in the next chapter or two, I promise. It just takes a bit to get things put in place, but once they are… mwahahahahaha.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Omg sorry it took so long to update. Thanks to everyone that followed/favourited/reviewed. I really appreciate it! Anyways let's proceed to the story

Arthur was surprised he had managed to get to sleep. Merlin had talked to him for a little while, but he'd eventually left claiming he had chores to attend to and he didn't return. Arthur hadn't expected him to, or he didn't know what to expect him to do. The prince went over the day ten or fifteen times in his head and he guessed at some point he'd managed to drift off since the next thing he remembered was being woken up.

"Rise and shine!" Merlin sing-songed loudly as light flooded the room.

Arthur mumbled something incoherently and rolled over, lulled into a false sense of security by the routine wake-up call.

"Come on, you have a lot to do today." Merlin encouraged with fake enthusiasm.

"Like what?" Arthur asked into a pillow, his brain still in the process of waking up.

"Well, you're dad is only giving you two days to readjust, so I'm going to teach you the ins and outs of the twenty first century." Merlin informed, finally giving the spark that led for Arthur to pop up, remembering the situation.

"Two days off of work… what work exactly?" Arthur asked, deciding that if was to be stuck here that it was probably important information what he was expected to do.

"You're the vice president of the antiques business. You go and appraise things and help with some of the auctions…" Merlin continued listing off duties that made little to no sense to Arthur, but he hoped in time he would figure it out.

"Fantastic." Arthur said somberly, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and standing up to stretch.

"So, just take a shower, get dressed, and come downstairs for breakfast, okay?" Merlin asked.

Arthur, not wanting to seem inept, nodded and watched as Merlin left the room to give Arthur some privacy.

Arthur remembered where the clothes were, so he was easily able to locate them, opening the drawer and pulling out a pair of the dark blue slightly rough trousers. He then looked for a shirt, he found quite a few that had some words on them, but eventually he found one that was simple and red, though the sleeves seemed shorter then he was used to. The blonde closed the drawers and looked around the room. There was no screen like he was accustomed to, he searched and found a door, opening it suspiciously he found it led to another room with a mirror and counter and a couple of items he didn't recognize.

Arthur walked into the dark room, the floor feeling cold under his feet, he examined the objects. One looked like a bathtub, only longer and made of some sort of white smooth stone. He hadn't the foggiest where the water would come from and it looked difficult to move the tub. Another item looked like a chamber pot, but it was also made of the same smooth stone as the tub and had water at the bottom. The room just seemed very unfamiliar and the tile floor felt uncomfortable under his feet. He treaded back out into the main room to change into a shirt and the odd feeling pants.

The blonde's hair was still a mess and he wasn't wearing any shoes, but that was Merlin's job to take care of, not his so he made his way downstairs like he'd been told. He followed his nose, thinking that would be the best bet to find Merlin and breakfast. He navigated his way around the large rooms and long hallways to find a room with tall counter space that had stools next to it. It seemed to be the kitchen, but it was much… shinier than what the kitchen in the castle looked like.

"Finally," Merlin said, as he saw Arthur enter the room. "I'd thought you'd gotten lost. Anyways, I've just finished preparing your breakfast." The dark haired boy turned and put a white porcelain plate down with some sort of flat bread, eggs, and sausages in front of one of the stools.

Arthur sits, poking at the food with a fork. Most of it looks familiar, but he doesn't recognize the weird flat bread. He carefully took a bite of it, it was sweet tasting and fluffy in texture, absolutely delicious.

"What is this?" The prince asked, pointing to the flat, fluffy, sweet, bread.

"The pancake?" Merlin answered in a questioning term. "Don't tell me you've forgotten what a pancake is."

"I've told you I've never known of most of these things." Arthur told him for what felt like the millionth time. "When will you get it through that thick skull of yours?"

It seemed then something clicked in Merlin's mind. Arthur had no clue what it was or what brought it on, but suddenly Merlin's eyes widened slightly just for a moment before he returned to normal, working on cleaning dishes. Arthur shook it off and continued to eat his breakfast, clearing the plate rather quickly. He hadn't realized how hungry he was and he couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten.

"Hungry are you?" asked Merlin, that annoying smirk on his face as he takes the now empty plate from in front of Arthur and cleans it off briefly, before putting it somewhere under the counter.

Arthur rolls his eyes, "I haven't eaten in…" He doesn't remember eating since the hunting trip. "1500 years ago."

"Sticking to the whole _I'm from the year 498_ story?" Merlin asked in a knowing voice.

"You mean reality? Whichever sorcerer did this I'm going to make sure they're executed." Arthur said, his servant still smirking.

After another moment Merlin put his hands together and spoke, "Well, now that you've eaten it's time to show you the town. Grab your shoes."

"And where are those?" Arthur winced slightly as he asked, feeling utterly stupid.

"By the door, come on, I'll show you." Merlin walked down the hallways like it was the back of his hand, but, Arthur guessed, he did know it that well. The large entranceway was where they stopped, Merlin pointing to a couple of shelves that contained quite a few odd looking pieces of footwear. "There are your shoes."

Arthur walked to the shelves and picked up one of the shoes. He didn't see any of his normal boots, most seemed to be flat with laces. The blonde quickly just decided on a pair and put them on, not wanting to seem any more confused than he absolutely had to.

"So what town are we going exactly?" Arthur asked as Merlin led him out the door and down a paved path.

"London, Leon should be around with the car any moment." Merlin said as a long black horseless carriage came down the pathway. There was dark glass at the windows, and one of them started to roll down, revealing a familiar face.

"Leon." Arthur said with a smile, recognizing one of his fellow knights. "What a relief it is to see you." He hoped that his most faithful knight would remember the real situation at hand.

Leon chuckled throatily, "It's only been a few days, Arthur. We're just heading into the city then?" Arthur's face fell as Leon blew off the situation just as everyone else had.

"Yeah, did you get my message about," Merlin made a signal to Leon by crossing his eyes and drawing a couple of circles around his ears.

Leon nodded, laughing again. "I did." Arthur watched as Merlin opened one of the carriages doors for Arthur. The carriage rode low to the ground, so instead of stepping up to it he had to duck down in order to slide into the carriage. The seating was leather, but the flooring was some sort of cloth, Arthur didn't quite recognize it. Merlin shut the door, making Arthur jump slightly at the noise. Arthur continued confusedly looking around the carriage as Merlin went around and got in the other side, competently pulling what looked like the safety strap from a saddle around him.

"What are you doing?" Arthur asked, confused by his servants weird behavior and the strange contraption.

"I'm putting on my seatbelt." Merlin answered, but after seeing Arthur's blank face he added. "A sash of honor to ride into motorized combat."

Arthurs face screwed up in even more confusion as Merlin laughed and reached over to strap Arthur into the carriage. The prince started to bat away Merlin's hands, but he was startled yet again when there was a sound like the roar of a beast and the carriage started to pull forward. He gripped his hands to the seat as the carriage speed up with a strange roaring sound, was he inside some sort of beast?

"What is this?" Arthur asked, entire body tense as the carriage took a left turn onto a road.

"It's a car. I told you that already." Merlin said. "Calm down."

That didn't help Arthur calm down at all. "But how is it moving?"

"An engine… you have no idea what that is, do you?" Merlin asked, finally catching on to Arthur's concern.

"Obviously not." His jaw was clenched, his fists clenched, holding tight to the seat. Arthur looked petrified, more so than Merlin had ever seen him.

"It's normal transportation now a days… erm like horses but it goes faster." Merlin tried his best to describe the idea of a car.

Arthur slightly lightened his grip on the seats of the car as Leon asked, "Is everything okay back there?"

Arthur was about to answer 'No' when Merlin spoke over him and said, "Everything's fine."

As the car continued towards the city Arthur began to relax slightly, looking out the tinted glass windows to watch as the trees rushed past at an amazing speed. He honestly had never gone this fast before and it was breathtaking… and slightly headache inducing. Arthur listened as Merlin and Leon chatted, but he paid little attention to the conversation, many of the words going over his head. The ride stretched on, there were other carria- cars on the road and so there was a lot of stopping and starting, which didn't help the headache. Eventually the headache started to transpire into a sense of nausea, but thankfully Merlin said they'd soon be arriving at London.

About half a minute after Merlin had foreseen their arrival, Leon stopped the car. Merlin got out and ran around the back to get the door for Arthur. Upon stepping out of the car, the blonde was greeted by buildings taller than he had ever seen. He turned around, looking at the odd place, where were they… London, Merlin had said. There were signs that flashed with light and people bustling in and out of stores with bags, many of them dressed in close to no clothes.

"Arthur." Merlin's voice jolted him out of the trance of looking around.

"What? What is all of this?" Arthur asked, turning to face Merlin to notice that the car they had arrived in had disappeared. "And where did the car go?"

"This is London and Leon will be back after he takes your dad to his lunch meeting." Merlin said.

"London…" His voice trailed off as he turned his focus towards the large buildings, bright signs, and bustling streets. This place looked way bigger than the Citadel, way bigger than any city he'd ever seen. If Merlin was planning for them to tour the whole city it would be a long day.

A/N: I know it took forever to update… I'm sorry. A lot of stuff really did come up. I'd like to dedicate this chapter to Katy (you know who you are), feel better!


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